By: Molly Millett, Pioneer Press
For: Pioneer Press
Jennifer Litwin, a consumer expert in the home furnishings industry, is a furniture detective. When she scouts out stores, she dresses down and shops anonymously. She asks a lot of questions and makes notes on prices, personnel, ambiance and, of course, quality.
Her research has been published in her new books, Furniture Hot Spots: The Best Furniture Stores and Websites Coast to Coast (published by the Lyons Press, $14.95) as well as Best Furniture Buying Tips Ever!: Learn How to Buy Furniture Like the Experts! (published by House of Collectibles, $14.95). Litwin plans to write regional Hot Spots guides, including one for the Twin Cities, in the future.
Litwin, a contributing writer for Consumers Digest magazine and a television consumer reporter, hopes her guidebooks will become to furniture what Zagat guides are to restaurants.
During a stopover in the Twin Cities recently, the Pioneer Press sat down with the Chicago writer to talk about furniture.
Q: What’s your background in the home furnishings industry?
A: It started when I bought a house while I was working on a trading floor of a bank. In the process of shopping for furniture on the weekends, I visited a lot of furniture stores but I found I didn’t know the questions to ask to make wise buying decisions.
When you’re shopping for a car, you know what you’re looking for, and you compare apples to apples. But in the home furnishings industry, there’s cotton, polyester … I had no idea what questions to ask a store salesperson about what goes into a better fabric, for example, what makes it last longer, to ask whether a fabric has been tested on a machine for wearability or for fading.
As I learned more, I found I was fascinated with the home furnishings industry. Eventually, I changed careers and trained at Sotheby’s. Since then, I’ve seen the industry from many angles. I had my own furniture store for years, and traveled all over the world to find furniture, from flea markets to antique stores to furniture shows. Now, I work as reporter for Consumer’s Digest in the furniture category.
Q: What’s your mission in writing these books?
A: I was the only person in history to travel across the country, undercover, to see what it’s like to be a consumer in the unregulated, $71 billion home furnishings industry. I ultimately want to make store owners more accountable for what they sell consumers.
Q: Is the home furnishing industry really unregulated? Can’t consumers find recourse, say, from the Better Business Bureau or through their credit cards?
A: What I mean by unregulated is that there’s no governmental agency overseeing it, to complain to if, say, you thought you were buying a piece of wood furniture, but it is really particleboard. It’s not like food, where the Food & Drug Administration gets involved if something isn’t labeled properly, and you end up having an allergic reaction. That’s unfortunate, since furnishing a home is the third biggest expense a person will ever make, after buying a house and a car.
Q: What are some of the furniture shopping secrets you’ve uncovered in your research?
A: With the increase of production happening in China, what is happening is you can’t be sure of the construction techniques, so you want the store to give you a warranty that goes beyond the manufacturers’ warranty. That should be a written warranty.
Another thing is, somewhere on the purchase order should be a list of the materials – you don’t want to think you’re buying solid wood and then find out it’s plastic. Also, shop online first. Retailers often offer deals online that they don’t offer in stores, up to 30 percent.
And – before you buy – find out if you will be charged a restocking fee if you return something.
Also, many of the big retailers – usually not the smaller, local retailers – offer special credit cards that may entitle you to a greater sales price or money back or a rebate at the end of the year. For example, Pier 1 offers you rewards for the more money you spend. Costco has an American Express card that offers points back toward purchases, that has been very successful. That doesn’t mean you want to finance your furniture through one of these cards, which generally charge high interest rates, but use it with the intent to pay it off right away and enjoy the perks.
And, many furniture today requires assembly. That’s OK if it just involves screwing in legs, but find out if the piece you want to buy will come in 50 boxes – it could be too complicated and time-consuming for the average consumer to assemble. I once spent $75 on a desk from Pottery Barn that was a major headache – it was so complicated to assemble that I had to pay a carpenter $200 to do it, and then I ended up having to saw off part of a leg to match the other end. It wasn’t worth it.
Q: Give us an example of how to save money when shopping for furniture.
A: Did you know that most furniture dealers, as opposed to chain stores, will give you a discount if you just ask for one? In my research, I was given one about 85 percent of the time. Ask for a 15 percent discount. This may also work at smaller, mom and pop type furniture stores.
Q: What’s one of the more highly rated stores you reviewed?
A: Ethan Allen has a good value for the money. They manufacture all their own merchandise, their salespeople are well trained and professional, and their furniture lines are more contemporary and less fussy than they used to be. Plus, they don’t charge shipping fees and their pieces come assembled. It’s a simple, no-frills store. And, a lot of their lines are constant, which is a nice feeling if you are building your home slowly over time. You can go back later and get a complementary piece for what you’ve already purchased.
Q: How is furniture shopping changing?
A: Today, many people think of furniture as disposable. They’ll purchase it from Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart. They’re not willing to wait six months for a piece to come in. They want to take it home on demand. That’s why companies like Target and Costco have stepped in to create home furnishings divisions.
Q: You mention that online furniture auctions are really popular, especially with the younger buyer. What’s your opinion of this way of buying furniture, say through eBay?
A: The problem with eBay is they’re just offering a venue. The customer is selling their own goods, so it can be very sketchy to try to return things.
Q: What do you think of IKEA?
A: IKEA is a place for disposable furniture, to get you through messy toddlers and sloppy teenagers. Some of the furniture I reviewed, though, felt wobbly, and not stuffed so comfortably. By removing the filler and putting in new cushion stuffing, you can make a $500 or $600 IKEA couch feel like a $5,000 couch.
But some of their pieces are very good for the price, like their kitchen chairs and tables and lamps. They produce a lot of good lamps in the $15 or $20 range.
Q: When will your book on Twin Cities furniture hot spots be published?
A: I’d like to publish a book about Minneapolis and St. Paul in 2008. I also hope to issue books for Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, as well as the South, Southwest and Southeast. In total, about 25 cities.
Q: Do you review online sites in your book?
A: Yes, and discount retailers. You know, a lot of people tell me they are afraid to shop for furniture online, they don’t know which companies are reputable. In my book, I’ve reviewed the stores as well as their Web sites, including chain stores.
Q: Just like fashion, people shop name brands when it comes to furniture. Can you trust a name?
A: Just like clothes, furniture designers offer different product lines for different stores. Don’t research the designer; research the elements of the line you’re considering.
Q: What are some of the questions you need to ask when shopping at the furniture store?
A: The most important thing you should do before you buy is to ask, ‘Has this been discontinued?’ Make sure it’s still going to be available six months out, in case you need to replace any knobs, pulls or legs, for example.
Q: What’s some other advice you give people when shopping for furniture?
A: I’ve watched hundreds of couples shopping for sofas on showroom floors. All they do is sit on the furniture. They don’t pull out the cushions, they don’t ask the salesperson to flip the piece over and see the construction underneath. These are things you need to do. My book, “Best Furniture Buying Tips Ever!” tells consumers how to determine if furniture is well constructed.
Q: What does your own home furniture collection look like?
A: Everyone always wants to see my house. But I’m not a furniture style person. I’m more a consumer reporter.
Q: But when you do shop for furniture for your own home, where do you prefer to go?
A: Actually, I don’t have a lot of space left in my house. I inherited a lot of things from my grandmother. But the pieces that make me the happiest are the ones I wasn’t looking for, the ones I paid under $100 for, whether it’s an old chair from an auction that we fixed up or something from a flea market. The worst purchases I’ve made are when I’m out on a mission, hunting for something in particular. The ones I’ve spent the most money on make me the least happy.
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